Ted heat exchanger

ABSTRACT

A thermo-electric device heat exchanger may include a plate part including a plurality of cooling tubes and a plurality of heat radiation tubes alternately disposed with respect to each other, a cooling inflowing tank and a cooling discharging tank connected to an inlet and an outlet of a cooling tube in the plurality of cooling tubes, a heat radiation inflowing tank and a heat radiation discharging tank connected to an inlet and an outlet of a heat radiation tube in the plurality of radiation tubes, and a thermoelectric element having a cooling surface and a heat radiation surface and disposed between the cooling tube and the heat radiation tube. The cooling surface may be attached to the cooling tube and the heat radiation surface may be attached to the heat radiation tube.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority of Korean Patent ApplicationNumber 10-2014-0084565, filed Jul. 7, 2014, the entire contents of whichapplication are incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a new Thermo-Electric Device (TED) heatexchanger capable of increasing cooling performance and heat radiationperformance.

2. Description of Related Art

A thermoelectric element is configured to include a cooling surface anda heat radiation surface and thus may generate a temperature differencebetween the cooling surface and the heat radiation surface due to anelectrical signal. Further, when polarities of electricity are changed,a role of the cooling surface and the heat radiation surface is changed.

Recently, various concepts for a heat exchanger using the thermoelectricelement have been proposed; however, they are less likely to supportperformance of the heat exchanger itself over convenience of thethermoelectric element and simplification of a system.

That is, the thermoelectric element needs to sufficiently radiate heatto secure the cooling performance. However, the thermoelectric elementhas a limitation in the heat radiation performance, and therefore doesnot have the sufficient cooling performance compared to power usage.

The information disclosed in this Background section is only forenhancement of understanding of the general background of the inventionand should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestionthat this information forms the prior art already known to a personskilled in the art.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The present invention is to provide a new TED heat exchanger capable ofincreasing cooling performance and heat radiation performance.

According to various aspects of the present invention, there is provideda TED heat exchanger, including: a plate part configured to include aplurality of cooling tubes and a plurality of heat radiation tubesalternately disposed with respect to each other, wherein one or morecooling tubes and one or more heat radiation tubes are formed in a tubeshape having fluid passages formed therein; a cooling inflowing tank anda cooling discharging tank configured to be connected to an inlet and anoutlet of a cooling tube in the plurality of cooling tubes,respectively; a heat radiation inflowing tank and a heat radiationdischarging tank configured to be connected to an inlet and an outlet ofa heat radiation tube in the plurality of radiation tubes, respectively;and a thermoelectric element configured to have a cooling surface and aheat radiation surface and be disposed between the cooling tube and theheat radiation tube, the cooling surface being attached to the coolingtube and the heat radiation surface being attached to the heat radiationtube.

The inlet and the outlet of the cooling tube may be disposed at oppositesides with respect to a center line extended to a longitudinal directionof the cooling tube. The inlet and the outlet of the heat radiation tubemay be disposed at opposite sides with respect to a center line extendedto a longitudinal direction of the heat radiation tube.

The inlet of the cooling tube and the outlet of the heat radiation tubemay be disposed at opposite sides, with respect to a center lineextended to a longitudinal direction of the cooling tube or with respectto a center line extended to a longitudinal direction of the heatradiation tube. The outlet of the cooling tube and the inlet of the heatradiation tube may be disposed at opposite sides, with respect to thecenter line extended to the longitudinal direction of the cooling tubeor with respect to the center line extended to the longitudinaldirection of the heat radiation tube.

The cooling inflowing tank and the heat radiation discharging tank maybe adjacently disposed at opposite sides, with respect to the centerline extended to the longitudinal direction of the cooling tube or withrespect to the center line extended to the longitudinal direction of theheat radiation tube. The cooling discharging tank and the heat radiationinflowing tank may be adjacently disposed at opposite sides, withrespect to the center line extended to the longitudinal direction of thecooling tube or with respect to the center line extended to thelongitudinal direction of the heat radiation tube. The cooling inflowingtank and the cooling discharging tank may be connected to the inlet andoutlet of the cooling tube, respectively. The heat radiation inflowingtank and the heat radiation discharging tank may be connected to theinlet and outlet of the heat radiation tube, respectively.

All inlets of the plurality of heat radiation tubes may be connected tothe heat radiation inflowing tank. All outlets of the plurality of heatradiation tubes may be connected to the heat radiation discharging tank.

Inlets of a first set of cooling tubes in the plurality of cooling tubesand outlets of a second set of cooling tubes in the plurality of coolingtubes may communicate with each other through the cooling inflowing tankor the cooling discharging tank, thereby forming a series of continuouschannels.

The plurality of cooling tubes may be divided into a first cooling sethaving a fluid flow in one side and a second cooling set having a fluidflow in the other side, in which the first cooling set and the secondcooling set may be configured to have an inlet and an outlet disposed inan opposite direction to each other.

The inlet of the first cooling set may communicate with the outlet ofthe second cooling set in the cooling inflowing tank or the coolingdischarging tank, or the outlet of the first cooling set may communicatewith the inlet of the second cooling set in the cooling inflowing tankor the cooling discharging tank.

In a case where the inlet of the first or second cooling set is an inletin which the fluid first flows, the inlet of the first or second coolingset may not communicate with the outlet of the other set. In a casewhere the outlet of the first or second cooling set is an outlet throughwhich the fluid is finally discharged, the outlet of the first or secondcooling set may not communicate with the inlet of the other set.

The cooling inflowing tank and the cooling discharging tank may be eachconnected to ends of the plurality of cooling tubes, and insides of thecooling inflowing tank and the cooling discharging tank may be providedwith partition walls to form a zigzag channel through which the fluidcontinuously flows in the first cooling set and the second cooling set.

The methods and apparatuses of the present invention have other featuresand advantages which will be apparent from or are set forth in moredetail in the accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein, andthe following Detailed Description, which together serve to explaincertain principles of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more clearly understood from the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an exemplary TED heat exchangeraccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a cooling side of an exemplary TED heatexchanger according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a heat radiation side of an exemplaryTED heat exchanger according to the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a tube and a thermoelectric element ofan exemplary TED heat exchanger according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of thepresent invention(s), examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings and described below. While the invention(s) willbe described in conjunction with exemplary embodiments, it will beunderstood that present description is not intended to limit theinvention(s) to those exemplary embodiments. On the contrary, theinvention(s) is/are intended to cover not only the exemplaryembodiments, but also various alternatives, modifications, equivalentsand other embodiments, which may be included within the spirit and scopeof the invention as defined by the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a TED heat exchanger, FIG. 2 is adiagram illustrating a cooling side of a TED heat exchanger, FIG. 3 is adiagram illustrating a heat radiation side of a TED heat exchanger, andFIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a tube and a thermoelectric element ofa TED heat exchanger, according to various embodiments of the presentinvention.

The TED heat exchanger according to various embodiments includes: aplate part configured to have a cooling tube 100 and a heat radiationtube 200 which are formed in a tube shape having fluid passages formedtherein, in which the cooling tube 100 and the heat radiation tube 200are prepared in plural and continuously disposed and the cooling tubes100 and the heat radiation tubes 200 are alternately disposed to eachother; a cooling inflowing tank 310 and a cooling discharging tank 320configured to be connected to an inlet and an outlet of the cooling tube100, respectively; a heat radiation inflowing tank 410 and a heatradiation discharging tank 420 configured to be connected to an inletand an outlet of the heat radiation tube 200, respectively; and athermoelectric element 500 configured to have a cooling surface and aheat radiation surface and be disposed between the cooling tube 100 andthe heat radiation tube 200, in which the cooling surface is attached tothe cooling tube 100 and the heat radiation surface is attached to theheat radiation tube 200.

FIG. 4 illustrates the tube and the thermoelectric element, in which theplate part according to the exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention is configured of a plurality of the tubes which may beclassified into the cooling tube 100 and the heat radiation tube 200.Each tube is formed in the tube shape which has the fluid passagesformed therein and as illustrated in FIG. 4, a pair of upper and lowerplates 10 is coupled with each other to form an inner space, in whichthe inner space is provided with pins 20 which are heat-exchanged with afluid and the pins 20 may be coupled with each other by a brazingmethod, and the like.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, the cooling tube 100 and theheat radiation tube 200 are each prepared in plural and continuouslydisposed. Further, in the overall state in which the cooling tubes 100and the heat radiation tubes 200 are coupled with each other asillustrated in FIG. 1, the cooling tubes 100 and the heat radiationtubes 200 are alternately disposed to each other.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the thermoelectric element 500 is disposedbetween the cooling tube 100 and the heat radiation tube 200 which arealternately disposed to each other. In FIG. 1, the thermoelectricelement is covered and thus is not illustrated, but it may be understoodfrom FIG. 4 that the thermoelectric element 500 is disposed between thecooling tube 100 and the heat radiation tube 200. Further, the coolingsurface of the thermoelectric element 500 is attached to the coolingtube 100 and the heat radiation surface is attached to the heatradiation tube 200, such that a fluid flowing in the cooling tube 100 issufficiently cooled through the cooling surfaces of the thermoelectricelements 500 disposed at upper and lower portions but a fluid flowing inthe heat radiation tube 200 heat-sinks the heat radiation surface of theupper and lower thermoelectric elements 500.

Further, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, an inlet 101 and an outlet 102of the cooling tube 100 may be formed to be disposed at an opposite sideto each other based on a center line a extended to a longitudinaldirection of the cooling tube 100. Further, an inlet 201 and an outlet202 of the heat radiation tube 200 may be formed to be disposed at anopposite side to each other based on a center line b extended to alongitudinal direction of the heat radiation tube 200. Therefore, thefluid flowing in the cooling tube 100 and the heat radiation tube 200may sufficiently flow over the whole area or substantially the wholearea through a channel obliquely formed and may be conducted. Further,the inlet 201 of the heat radiation tube 200 is disposed at the outlet102 side of the cooling tube 100, such that a finally discharged coolingfluid may maximally keep a cooled state.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the inlets or the outlets of the cooling tube100 and the heat radiation tube 200 may be formed to be disposed at anopposite side to each other based on the center lines a and b extendedto the longitudinal directions of the tubes. Further, the coolinginflowing tank 310 or the cooling discharging tank 320 is adjacentlydisposed at an opposite side to each other based on center lines a and bextended to the longitudinal direction of tubes of the heat radiationinflowing tank 410 or the heat radiation discharging tank 420 and thusmay be connected to the inlets or the outlets of the cooling tube 100 orthe heat radiation tube 200, respectively. By the configuration, it ispossible to implement a compact size in a thickness direction of theheat exchanger and it is possible to uniformly circulate the fluid overthe whole area.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 3, all of the plurality of inlets 201of the heat radiation tube 200 may be connected to the heat radiationinflowing tank 410. Further, all of the plurality of outlets 202 of theheat radiation tube 200 may be connected to the heat radiationdischarging tank 420. By doing so, the heat radiation fluid for heatradiation are simultaneously introduced from the inlet 201 of one sideand simultaneously discharged to the outlet 202 of the other side andthus a plurality of straight channels are formed, such that a flowvelocity is fast, thereby performing the fast heat radiation andmaximally bringing a radiated quantity of heat.

On the other hand, in the case of the cooling as illustrated in FIG. 2,the inlets and the outlets of the plurality of cooling tubes 100communicate with each other through the cooling inflowing tank 310 orthe cooling discharging tank 320, such that the plurality of coolingtubes 100 may form a series of continuous channels. That is, in the caseof the heat radiation, a fast flow velocity, a large flow rate, and theheat radiation are performed through the plurality of parallel channels,while in the case of the cooling, the channels are continued in zigzagto add cooling to the continuous cooling, such that the flow rate andthe flow velocity are small but the cooling is increased so much.

In detail, the plurality of cooling tubes 100 are divided into a firstcooling set A having a fluid flow in one side and a second cooling set Bhaving a fluid flow in the other side, in which the first cooling set Aand the second cooling set B may be configured to have an inlet and anoutlet disposed in an opposite direction to each other.

Further, the inlet of the first cooling set A may communicate with theoutlet of the second cooling set B in the cooling inflowing tank 310 orthe cooling discharging tank 320 and the outlet of the first cooling setA may communicate with the inlet of the second cooling set B in thecooling inflowing tank 310 or the cooling discharging tank 320. However,in the case of the inlet in which the fluid first flows or the outletthrough which the fluid is finally discharged, the first cooling set Aor the second cooling set B does not communicate with the cooling setsof the other side.

To this end, the cooling inflowing tank 310 and the cooling dischargingtank 320 are each connected to ends of the cooling tube 100 and theinsides of the cooling inflowing tank 310 and the cooling dischargingtank 320 are provided with partition walls 314 and 324 to form a zigzagchannel through which the fluid continuously flows in the first coolingset A and the second cooling set B.

That is, in cases such as those illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, thepartition walls 314 and 324 are each prepared at different positions ofthe cooling inflowing tank 310 and the cooling discharging tank 320 oneby one and thus the channel of first cooling set A—second cooling setB—first cooling set A may be formed. Through the process, the coolingfluid is continuously cooled and thus the temperature of the finallydischarged cooling fluid is very low, while the heat radiation fluidimplements the fast heat radiation through the plurality of parallelchannels and thus the performance of the heat exchanger is finally veryexcellent.

Meanwhile, a method of disposing the cooling inflowing tank 310 and thecooling discharging tank 320 and disposing the partition walls 314 and324 therein may be used, but a method of forming one channel, having theplurality of cooling inflowing tanks or cooling discharging tanks mayalso be used. That is, the cooling inflowing tank or the coolingdischarging tank is designed to be divided into the plurality of tanks,and as a result it is possible to obtain the same or similar effect asthe effect obtained by dividing the cooling inflowing tank or thecooling discharging tank by the partition wall. However, in this case,there is a problem in that the number of parts is increased and theassembling time may be increased.

As described above, according to various embodiments of the presentinvention, the TED heat exchanger may sufficiently reduce thetemperature of the cooling fluid and rapidly discharge the heatradiation fluid in the heat exchanger using the thermoelectric element,thereby remarkably increasing the performance of the thermoelectricelement. Therefore, the overall coefficient of performance (COP)performance of the heat exchanger may be very greatly improved.

For convenience in explanation and accurate definition in the appendedclaims, the terms “upper” or “lower”, and etc. are used to describefeatures of the exemplary embodiments with reference to the positions ofsuch features as displayed in the figures.

The foregoing descriptions of specific exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention have been presented for purposes of illustration anddescription. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theinvention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the aboveteachings. The exemplary embodiments were chosen and described in orderto explain certain principles of the invention and their practicalapplication, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to make andutilize various exemplary embodiments of the present invention, as wellas various alternatives and modifications thereof. It is intended thatthe scope of the invention be defined by the Claims appended hereto andtheir equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A thermo-electric device (TED) heat exchanger,comprising: a plate part configured to include a plurality of coolingtubes and a plurality of heat radiation tubes alternately disposed withrespect to each other, wherein one or more cooling tubes and one or moreheat radiation tubes are formed in a tube shape having fluid passagesformed therein; a cooling inflowing tank and a cooling discharging tankconfigured to be connected to an inlet and an outlet of a cooling tubein the plurality of cooling tubes, respectively; a heat radiationinflowing tank and a heat radiation discharging tank configured to beconnected to an inlet and an outlet of a heat radiation tube in theplurality of radiation tubes, respectively; and a thermoelectric elementconfigured to have a cooling surface and a heat radiation surface and bedisposed between the cooling tube and the heat radiation tube, thecooling surface being attached to the cooling tube and the heatradiation surface being attached to the heat radiation tube.
 2. The TEDheat exchanger according to claim 1, wherein the inlet and the outlet ofthe cooling tube are disposed at opposite sides with respect to a centerline extended to a longitudinal direction of the cooling tube.
 3. TheTED heat exchanger according to claim 1, wherein the inlet and theoutlet of the heat radiation tube are disposed at opposite sides withrespect to a center line extended to a longitudinal direction of theheat radiation tube.
 4. The TED heat exchanger according to claim 1,wherein: the inlet of the cooling tube and the outlet of the heatradiation tube are disposed at opposite sides, with respect to a centerline extended to a longitudinal direction of the cooling tube or withrespect to a center line extended to a longitudinal direction of theheat radiation tube; and the outlet of the cooling tube and the inlet ofthe heat radiation tube are disposed at opposite sides, with respect tothe center line extended to the longitudinal direction of the coolingtube or with respect to the center line extended to the longitudinaldirection of the heat radiation tube.
 5. The TED heat exchangeraccording to claim 4, wherein: the cooling inflowing tank and the heatradiation discharging tank are adjacently disposed at opposite sides,with respect to the center line extended to the longitudinal directionof the cooling tube or with respect to the center line extended to thelongitudinal direction of the heat radiation tube; the coolingdischarging tank and the heat radiation inflowing tank are adjacentlydisposed at opposite sides, with respect to the center line extended tothe longitudinal direction of the cooling tube or with respect to thecenter line extended to the longitudinal direction of the heat radiationtube; the cooling inflowing tank and the cooling discharging tank areconnected to the inlet and outlet of the cooling tube, respectively; andthe heat radiation inflowing tank and the heat radiation dischargingtank are connected to the inlet and outlet of the heat radiation tube,respectively.
 6. The TED heat exchanger according to claim 1, whereinall inlets of the plurality of heat radiation tubes are connected to theheat radiation inflowing tank.
 7. The TED heat exchanger according toclaim 1, wherein all outlets of the plurality of heat radiation tubesare connected to the heat radiation discharging tank.
 8. The TED heatexchanger according to claim 1, wherein inlets of a first set of coolingtubes in the plurality of cooling tubes and outlets of a second set ofcooling tubes in the plurality of cooling tubes communicate with eachother through the cooling inflowing tank or the cooling dischargingtank, thereby forming a series of continuous channels.
 9. The TED heatexchanger according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of cooling tubesare divided into a first cooling set having a fluid flow in one side anda second cooling set having a fluid flow in the other side, the firstcooling set and the second cooling set being configured to have an inletand an outlet disposed in an opposite direction to each other.
 10. TheTED heat exchanger according to claim 9, wherein the inlet of the firstcooling set communicates with the outlet of the second cooling set inthe cooling inflowing tank or the cooling discharging tank, or theoutlet of the first cooling set communicates with the inlet of thesecond cooling set in the cooling inflowing tank or the coolingdischarging tank.
 11. The TED heat exchanger according to claim 10,wherein: in a case where the inlet of the first or second cooling set isan inlet in which the fluid first flows, the inlet of the first orsecond cooling set does not communicate with the outlet of the otherset; and in a case where the outlet of the first or second cooling setis an outlet through which the fluid is finally discharged, the outletof the first or second cooling set does not communicate with the inletof the other set.
 12. The TED heat exchanger according to claim 11,wherein: the cooling inflowing tank and the cooling discharging tank areeach connected to ends of the plurality of cooling tubes; and insides ofthe cooling inflowing tank and the cooling discharging tank are providedwith partition walls to form a zigzag channel through which the fluidcontinuously flows in the first cooling set and the second cooling set.